


Sea of Clouds

by Ariss_Tenoh



Category: Sentou Yousei Yukikaze | Battle Fairy Snowstorm
Genre: Complete, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-08 12:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1132604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariss_Tenoh/pseuds/Ariss_Tenoh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In life, everyone needs a harbour. Especially the wanderers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sea of Clouds

Behind the dark glass of his helmet, Rei closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

 

Yukikaze was stationed so high in Fairy's skies that all noise was eliminated. 

 

Below Yukikaze, the clouds spread in a uniform white blanket. If he looked hard enough, Rei knew he would be able to see the FAF fighter planes darting here and there like children in mock battle.

 

Mock battle. At times humanity's secret war with JAM did seem like children playing, with no one coming out as victor but lots of broken toys instead. 

 

Here, poised high above the planet's surface but not yet out at space was where Rei liked to be. 

He wondered sometimes what he would see if he flew higher. Did Fairy have a black space dotted with stars like Earth did? Or would its twin suns burn any who got too close? If it weren't for the possible damage to Yukikaze, he would've been tempted to try.

 

For a moment he wondered what Jack's reaction would be to that. Rei could see it in his mind's eye. First that split second moment of disbelief, then panic as he realised that yes, Rei _had_ done that, then would come a very long lecture on his recklessness and danger. It was kind of funny that Jack never lectured him on disobeying orders. With Rei's record, he thought it would be quite useless for Jack to do so. 

 

Finally, after all the fussing was done Jack would inevitably kiss him.

 

A gentle smile tugged at Rei's lips. He thought that for someone who didn't fly anymore, Jack was rather fond of adrenalin-induced sex.

 

He raised his eyes when he felt the cockpit camera shift to him. A slight shake of his head, so slight only a camera could capture it, and Yukikaze returned its focus to the battle below. 

 

His mission was usually restricted to bringing Yukikaze to a safe observation point, and letting Yukikaze and his co-pilot do their work. 

 

Grey eyes looked beyond the cockpit's reinforced glass at the white clouds. A memory from long ago trickled into his mind....

 

 

_It was yet another long and cold winter here. He wished he could leave this place but he couldn't. Not yet. He wasn't old enough. Maybe in another year or two._

_Grey skies heavy with grey clouds. Buildings with faded colours and flaking paint. A few people huddled in the shops' doorways from the howling wind and drizzling rain._

_Rei thought it was all pointless. You couldn't escape from the elements when you lived in a town with a harbour. Not on this island of Japan where fishing was a main, if not THE, source of income._

_His steps carried him to the end of a pier and he stood there being flayed by the salt sprinkle of crashing waves. His jacket was about to be ripped off his shoulders by the wind. It wasn't a day to be outdoors and walking. Rei didn't care._

_Apparently someone else caught that wandering thought._

_"You should be at home, boy. Your mother'd be worried." A voice rough like the sea's waves and just as violent ordered._

_He looked to the side, and there sitting on a wooden stool with a broken leg was an old man in a faded flannel shirt and an oiled jacket._

_Rei wondered how the man kept his cigarette alight with all the wind and water around them._

_The old man's face was craggy and his skin was full of lines even as it stretched tight over his face. He puffed his cigarette for all the nicotine it was worth before throwing the stub into the sea and promptly lighting another one._

_It was a miracle half the town's people weren't dead before thirty with the amount of cigarettes they consumed._

_"You don't smoke?" The man practically barked._

_Rei shook his head._

_"Good for you." This too was violently thrown at him._

_The old man spoke in the habit of someone who'd fought for every little thing in his life and wasn't about to rest even if life decided to give him a break._

_A huge wave hit the pier. Rei wiped some of the sea water off his face._

_"Never seen you near the docks before. Or any ship's crew."_

_He shrugged in response to the suspicion in that statement. "I'm not a sailor."_

_He got a Haruumph for an answer._

_"Waiting for someone then? The docks are down that way."_

_Rei was silent._

_"Everyone needs a harbour you know."_

_Where had that come from? Rei asked, intrigued despite himself, "Harbour?"_

_"Of course." The man nodded in an imitation of sageness. "Got to know what you're coming back for. Right?"_

_"Why?"_

_"It's good for a man to know where he's headed in life. Especially young people like you. But you also hafta know what you're coming back to. There's no point in going anywhere if you can't come back. What's important in a journey isn't the going, it's the coming back." The man emphasized this speech with a decisive nod._

_Rei blinked. It made sense, in an inverted logic kind of way._

_The man turned his head in a sharp angle and stared at Rei. He smiled, and the smile was broken and ugly._

_"You jus haven't found your harbour yet. You'll know what I mean when yo do." He turned back to his contemplation of the greyish sea and lit another cigarette._

_Rei walked away and left him there smoking._

 

 

"Lt. Fukai, we can RTB now." 

 

"Roger," Rei replied. 

 

Yukikaze shifted into active flight mode and dipped smoothly into the sea of clouds.

 

 

He took off his helmet and spotted Jack standing with the ground crew near the runway. Odd. It wasn't like him to be outside. Jack usually waited in his office. 

 

A last glance at Yukikaze's systems and Rei climbed out of the cockpit.

 

His feet touched the black asphalt and he turned to look at Jack. The usual loud sounds and colours of the runway and its crew swept over Rei as he tilted his head and frowned at Jack.

 

It wasn't long before Jack caught the look and headed toward him. Of course being a major meant that one was bombarded with papers to sign and questions to answer and all sorts of plans to look over. 

 

Rei slipped away unnoticed to change.

 

 

Jack eventually found his errant lover in the locker room.

 

"Rei?"

 

Grey eyes met blue ones.

 

"Are you all right? You looked pale on the runway. Did something happen during the flight?" Jack really hated the way he was becoming a mother hen after Rei's crash and illness. However, he couldn't help it.

 

And Rei was still _looking_ at him. The kind of looking which implied something was going on.

 

He was surprised when Rei pushed him against a locker. The locker gave a metallic whine and rattled behind him. Rei pressed his body flat against Jack's and kissed him.

 

Only it wasn't a mere kiss.

 

It was one of those kisses Jack read about in poetry class in high school. The kind poets went on and on about, and likened it to everything from the sun to strawberries. The kind women wanted their boyfriends to give them and their boyfriends rarely did.

 

A sweet, moist, silent, and heartachingly innocent kiss.

 

Jack thought his knees would give like all those women swore happened.

 

Rei stood back a little and smiled. Then buried his face in Jack's neck and whispered, "Tadaima."

 

"What does that mean?" Jack asked with no small amount of caution.

 

A very strange sound emanated from the vicinity of his neck.

 

"Rei... are you.. giggling?"

 

"Rei.."

 

The locker room's door opened and Jack was looking at Lt. Burgadish's red face.

 

"Ma-major Bukhar, sir!" 

 

The rest of the SAF-5 pilots were peeking over Burgadish's shoulders and they all gave him knowing, if not leering, smiles.

 

Of course Burgadish didn't know about him and Rei. Although the entire Boomerang squadron did, Hell even Jack's commanding officer knew, he didn't want the young man to find out about it this way.

 

His lover was no help at all. Rei's normally cool behavior didn't change. He merely shrugged on his jacket, put on his cap, and left.

 

Leaving Jack to face the rest of his pilots and their ribbing.

 

 

A few days later, Rei walked into the locker room and found Jack there waiting.

 

He stood a few steps inside the room and looked at Jack.

 

Jack understood the unvoiced question. He strode to Rei and stopped just short of touching him. Before he leaned and grasped Rei's chin to give him a deep possessive kiss.

 

"Wha-"

 

A finger on his lips stopped him. A tender look in those blue eyes greeted him.

 

"Okaerinasai," Jack said in accented Japanese.

 

Rei smiled, knowing he'd found it.

 

~ End ~

**Author's Note:**

> Written on September 24 2004 at an altitude of 37,000 feet. Probably the closest I'll ever come to Rei's experience of flying. Another fic for the Kissage Challenge.
> 
> Frequent anime watchers will know that "Tadaima" and "Okaerinasai" is the greeting anime characters/Japanese give when leaving the house or just returning to it. Loosely translated it means: "I'm home" and "Welcome back".


End file.
